UK report anticipated NIST calls

New Civil Engineer International 01/08/2005

VIRTUALLY ALL conclusions in NIST's official report into the collapse of the World Trade Center towers were reached in the UK three years ago, engineers have claimed. A major report Safety in tall buildings was published in July 2002, just 10 months after the towers collapsed (NCEI August 2002). It was published by an Institution of Structural Engineers-led panel, which included ICE senior vice president and Jacobs Babtie director Gordon Masterton. As recommendations are similar to those published by NIST. These included calls for buildings to be designed to survive complete burn out, include "robust, resilient and durable passive fire protection" and allow large-scale evacuation. It also called for regular independent audits of fire protection systems. "The interesting thing is that the more you read the more it looks similar to what we did in the UK after 9/11, " said Masterton. "Of the 30 recommendations 24 are identical messages to those contained in our report. "It made me quite proud that what we produced in eight months at no cost contains commendations so similar to a $16M (£8.8M) investigation that has taken four years to come to its conclusions."